alarm I observed them talking to one another, and pointing at me. At
length a particularly truculent-looking individual, with an enormous
mustache, approached me, and, fixing his eyes long and steadfastly upon
my trousers, he remarked, in the surliest possible tones, "_Them
breeches is a d----d bad colour._" This he said in allusion, not to
their dirty state, but to the fact of their being grey, the rebel
colour. I replied to this very disagreeable assertion in as conciliating
a way as I possibly could; and in answer to his question as to who I
was, I said that I was an English traveller. He then said that his wife
was an English lady from Preston. I next expressed my pride in being a
countryman of his wife's. He then told me in tones that admitted of no
contradiction, that Preston was just forty-five miles east of London;
and he afterwards launched into torrents of invectives against the
rebels, who had _run him_ out of Virginia; and he stated his intention
of killing them in great numbers to gratify his taste. With some
difficulty I prevailed upon him and his rabid brethren to drink, which
pacified them slightly for a time; but when the horse was brought out to
be harnessed, it became evident I was not to be allowed to proceed
without a row. I therefore addressed the crowd, and asked them quietly
who among them wished to detain me; and I told them, at the same time,
that I would not answer any questions put by those who were not persons
in authority, but that I should be most happy to explain myself to any
officer of the United States army. At length they allowed me to proceed,
on the understanding that my buggy-driver should hand me over to General
Kelly, at Hancock. The driver was provided with a letter for the
General, in which I afterwards discovered that I was denounced as a spy,
and "handed over to the General _to be dealt with as justice to our
cause demands_." We were then allowed to start, the driver being
threatened with condign vengeance if he let me escape.
After we had proceeded about six miles we fell in with some Yankee
cavalry, by whom we were immediately captured, and the responsibility of
my custody was thus removed from my conductor's shoulders. A cavalry
soldier was put in charge of us, and we passed through the numerous
Yankee outposts under the title of "_Prisoners_."
The hills near Hancock were white with Yankee tents, and there were, I
believe, from 8000 to 10,000 Federals there. I did not think much of the
appearance of the Northern troops; they are certainly dressed in proper
uniform, but their clothes are badly fitted, and they are often
round-shouldered, dirty, and slovenly in appearance; in fact, bad
imitations of soldiers. Now, the Confederate has no ambition to imitate
the regular soldier at all; he looks the genuine rebel; but in spite of
his bare feet, his ragged clothes, his old rug, and tooth-brush stuck
like a rose in his button-hole,[65] he has a sort of devil-may-care,
reckless, self-confident look, which is decidedly taking.
At 5 P.M. we drove up in front of the door of General Kelly's quarters,
and to my immense relief I soon discovered that he was a gentleman. I
then explained to him the whole truth, concealing nothing. I said I was
a British officer on leave of absence, travelling for my own
instruction; that I had been all the way to Mexico, and entered the
Southern States by the Rio Grande, for the express purpose of not
breaking any legally established blockade. I told him I had visited all
the Southern armies in Mississippi, Tennessee, Charleston, and Virginia,
and seen the late campaign as General Longstreet's guest, but had in no
way entered the Confederate service. I also gave him my word that I had
not got in my possession any letters, either public or private, from any
person in the South to any person anywhere else. I showed him my British
passport and General Lee's pass as a British officer; and I explained
that my only object in coming North was to return to England in time for
the expiration of my leave; and I ended by expressing a hope that he
would make my detention as short as possible.
After considering a short time, he said that he would certainly allow me
to go on, but that he could not allow my driver to go back. I felt
immensely relieved at the decision, but the countenance of my companion
lengthened considerably. It was, however, settled that he should take me
on to Cumberland, and General Kelly good-naturedly promised to do what
he could for him on his return.
General Kelly then asked me in an off-hand manner whether all General
Lee's army was at Hagerstown; but I replied, laughing, "You of course
understand, General, that, having got that pass from General Lee, I am
bound by every principle of honour not to give you any information which
can be of advantage to you." He laughed and promised not to ask me any
more questions of that sort. He then sent his aide-de-camp with me to
the provost-marshal, who immediately gave me a pass for Cumberland. On
my return to the General's, I discovered the perfidious driver (that
zealous Southerner a few hours previous) hard at work communicating to
General Kelly all he knew, and a great deal more besides; but, from what
I heard, I don't think his information was very valuable.
I was treated by General Kelly and all his officers with the greatest
good-nature and courtesy, although I had certainly come among them under
circumstances suspicious, to say the least. I felt quite sorry that they
should be opposed to my Southern friends, and I regretted still more
that they should be obliged to serve with or under a Butler, a Milroy,
or even a Hooker. I took leave of them at six o'clock; and I can truly
say that the only Federal officers I have ever come in contact with were
gentlemen.
We had got four miles beyond Hancock, when the tire of one of our wheels
came off, and we had to stop for a night at a farmhouse. I had supper
with the farmer and his labourers, who had just come in from the fields,
and the supper was much superior to that which can be procured at the
first hotel at Richmond. All were violent Unionists, and perfectly under
the impression that the rebels were totally demoralised, and about to
lay down their arms. Of course I held my tongue, and gave no one reason
to suppose that I had ever been in rebeldom.
[65] This tooth-brush in the button-hole is a very common custom, and
has a most quaint effect.
* * * * *
_10th July_ (Friday).--The drive from Hancock to Cumberland is a very
mountainous forty-four miles--total distance from Hagerstown, sixty-six
miles. We met with no further adventure on the road, although the people
were very inquisitive, but I never opened my mouth. One woman in
particular, who kept a toll-bar, thrust her ugly old head out of an
upper window, and yelled out, "Air they a-fixin' for another battle out
there?" jerking her head in the direction of Hagerstown. The driver
replied that, although the bunch of rebels there was pretty big, yet he
could not answer for their fixing arrangements, which he afterwards
explained to me meant digging fortifications.
We arrived at Cumberland at 7 P.M. This is a great coal place, and a few
weeks ago it was touched up by "Imboden," who burnt a lot of coal
barges, which has rendered the people rabid against the Rebs. I started
by stage for Johnstown at 8.30 P.M.
* * * * *
_11th July_ (Saturday).--I hope I may never for my sins be again
condemned to travel for thirty hours in an American stage on a used-up
plank road. We changed carriages at Somerset. All my fellow-travellers
were of course violent Unionists, and invariably spoke of my late
friends as Rebels or Rebs. They had all got it into their heads that
their Potomac army, not having been thoroughly thrashed, as it always
has been hitherto, had achieved a tremendous victory; and that its new
chief, General Meade, who in reality was driven into a strong position,
which he had sense enough to stick to, is a wonderful strategist. They
all hope that the remnants of Lee's army will not be allowed to ESCAPE
over the Potomac; whereas, when I left the army two days ago, no man in
it had a thought of escaping over the Potomac, and certainly General
Meade was not in a position to attempt to prevent the passage, if
crossing had become necessary.
I reached Johnstown on the Pennsylvania Railway at 6 P.M., and found
that town in a great state of excitement in consequence of the review of
two militia companies, who were receiving garlands from the fair ladies
of Johnstown in gratitude for their daring conduct in turning out to
resist Lee's invasion. Most of the men seemed to be respectable
mechanics, not at all adapted for an early interview with the rebels.
The garlands supplied were as big and apparently as substantial as a
ship's life-buoys, and the recipients looked particularly helpless after
they had got them. Heaven help those Pennsylvanian braves if a score of
Hood's Texans had caught sight of them!
Left Johnstown by train at 7.30 P.M., and, by paying half a dollar, I
secured a berth in a sleeping-car--a most admirable and ingenious Yankee
notion.
* * * * *
_12th July_ (Sunday).--The Pittsburg and Philadelphia Railway is, I
believe, accounted one of the best in America, which did not prevent my
spending eight hours last night off the line; but, being asleep at the
time, I was unaware of the circumstance. Instead of arriving at
Philadelphia at 6 A.M., we did not get there till 3 P.M. Passed
Harrisburg at 9 A.M. It was full of Yankee soldiers, and has evidently
not recovered from the excitement consequent upon the late invasion, one
effect of which has been to prevent the cutting of the crops by the
calling out of the militia.
At Philadelphia I saw a train containing one hundred and fifty
Confederate prisoners, who were being stared at by a large number of the
_beau monde_ of Philadelphia. I mingled with the crowd which was
chaffing them. Most of the people were good-natured, but I heard one
suggestion to the effect that they should be taken to the river, "and
every mother's son of them drowned there."
I arrived at New York at 10 P.M., and drove to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
* * * * *
_13th July_ (Monday).--The luxury and comfort of New York and
Philadelphia strike one as extraordinary after having lately come from
Charleston and Richmond. The greenbacks seem to be nearly as good as
gold. The streets are as full as possible of well-dressed people, and
are crowded with able-bodied civilians capable of bearing arms, who have
evidently no intention of doing so. They apparently _don't feel the war
at all_ here; and until there is a grand smash with their money, or some
other catastrophe to make them feel it, I can easily imagine that they
will not be anxious to make peace.
I walked the whole distance of Broadway to the Consul's house, and
nothing could exceed the apparent prosperity; the street was covered
with banners and placards inviting people to enlist in various
high-sounding regiments. Bounties of $550 were offered, and huge
pictures hung across the street, on which numbers of ragged
_greybacks_,[66] terror depicted on their features, were being pursued
by the Federals.
On returning to the Fifth Avenue, I found all the shopkeepers beginning
to close their stores, and I perceived by degrees that there was great
alarm about the resistance to the draft which was going on this morning.
On reaching the hotel I perceived a whole block of buildings on fire
close by: engines were present, but were not allowed to play by the
crowd. In the hotel itself, universal consternation prevailed, and an
attack by the mob had been threatened. I walked about in the
neighbourhood, and saw a company of soldiers on the march, who were
being jeered at and hooted by small boys, and I saw a negro pursued by
the crowd take refuge with the military; he was followed by loud cries
of "Down with the b----y nigger! Kill all niggers!" &c. Never having
been in New York before, and being totally ignorant of the state of
feeling with regard to negroes, I inquired of a bystander what the
negroes had done that they should want to kill them? He replied, civilly
enough--"Oh sir, they hate them here; they are the innocent cause of all
these troubles." Shortly afterwards, I saw a troop of citizen cavalry
come up; the troopers were very gorgeously attired, but evidently
experienced so much difficulty in sitting their horses, that they were
more likely to excite laughter than any other emotion.
[66] The Northerners call the Southerners "Greybacks," just as the
latter call the former "Bluebellies," on account of the colour of their
dress.
* * * * *
_14th July_ (Tuesday).--At breakfast this morning two Irish waiters,
seeing I was a Britisher, came up to me one after the other, and
whispered at intervals in hoarse Hibernian accents--"It's disgraceful,
sir. I've been drafted, sir. I'm a Briton. I love my country. I love the
Union Jack, sir." I suggested an interview with Mr Archibald, but
neither of them seemed to care about going to the _Counsel_ just yet.
These rascals have probably been hard at work for years, voting as free
and enlightened American citizens, and abusing England to their hearts'
content.
I heard every one talking of the total demoralisation of the Rebels as a
certain fact, and all seemed to anticipate their approaching
destruction. All this sounded very absurd to me, who had left Lee's army
four days previously as full of fight as ever--much stronger in numbers,
and ten times more efficient in every military point of view, than it
was _when it crossed the Potomac to invade Maryland a year ago_. In its
own opinion, Lee's army has not lost any of its prestige at the battle
of Gettysburg, in which it most gallantly stormed strong intrenchments
defended by the whole army of the Potomac, which never ventured outside
its works, or approached in force within half a mile of the Confederate
artillery.
The result of the battle of Gettysburg, together with the fall of
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, seems to have turned everybody's head
completely, and has deluded them with the idea of the speedy and
complete subjugation of the South. I was filled with astonishment to
hear people speaking in this confident manner, when one of their most
prosperous States had been so recently laid under contribution as far as
Harrisburg and Washington, their capital itself having just been saved
by a fortunate turn of luck. Four-fifths of the Pennsylvanian spoil had
safely crossed the Potomac before I left Hagerstown.
The consternation in the streets seemed to be on the increase; fires
were going on in all directions, and the streets were being patrolled by
large bodies of police followed by special constables, the latter
bearing truncheons, but not looking very happy.
I heard a British captain making a deposition before the Consul, to the
effect that the mob had got on board his vessel and cruelly beaten his
coloured crew. As no British man-of-war was present, the French Admiral
was appealed to, who at once requested that all British ships with
coloured crews might be anchored under the guns of his frigate.
The reports of outrages, hangings, and murder, were now most alarming,
and terror and anxiety were universal. All shops were shut; all
carriages and omnibuses had ceased running. No coloured man or woman was
visible or safe in the streets, or even in his own dwelling. Telegraphs
were cut, and railroad tracks torn up. The draft was suspended, and the
mob evidently had the upper hand.
The people who can't pay $300 naturally hate being forced to fight in
order to liberate the very race who they are most anxious should be
slaves. It is their direct interest not only that all slaves should
remain slaves, but that the free Northern negroes who compete with them
for labour should be sent to the South also.
* * * * *
_15th July_ (Wednesday).--The hotel this morning was occupied by
military, or rather by creatures in uniform. One of the sentries stopped
me; and on my remonstrating to his officer, the latter blew up the
sentry, and said, "You are only to stop persons in military dress--don't
you know what military dress is?" "No," responded this efficient
sentry--and I left the pair discussing the definition of a soldier. I
had the greatest difficulty in getting a conveyance down to the water. I
saw a stone barricade in the distance, and heard firing going on--and
was not at all sorry to find myself on board the China.
_POSTSCRIPT._
During my voyage home in the China I had an opportunity of discussing
with many intelligent Northern gentlemen all that I had seen in my
Southern travels. We did so in a very amicable spirit, and I think they
rendered justice to my wish to explain to them without exaggeration the
state of feeling amongst their enemies. Although these Northerners
belonged to quite the upper classes, and were not likely to be led
blindly by the absurd nonsense of the sensation press at New York, yet
their ignorance of the state of the case in the South was very great.
The recent successes had given them the impression that the last card
of the South was played. Charleston was about to fall; Mobile, Savannah,
and Wilmington would quickly follow; Lee's army, they thought, was a
disheartened, disorganised mob; Bragg's army in a still worse condition,
fleeing before Rosecrans, who would carry everything before him. They
felt confident that the fall of the Mississippian fortresses would
prevent communication from one bank to the other, and that the great
river would soon be open to peaceful commerce.
All these illusions have since been dispelled, but they probably still
cling to the idea of the great exhaustion of the Southern _personnel_.
But this difficulty of recruiting the Southern armies is not so great as
is generally supposed. As I have already stated, no Confederate soldier
is given his discharge from the army, however badly he may be wounded;
but he is employed at such labour in the public service as he may be
capable of performing, and his place in the ranks is taken by a sound
man hitherto exempted. The slightly wounded are cured as quickly as
possible, and are sent back at once to their regiments. _The women take
care of this._ The number actually killed, or who die of their wounds,
are the only total losses to the State, and these form but a small
proportion of the enormous butcher's bills, which seem at first so very
appalling.
I myself remember, with General Polk's corps, a fine-looking man who
had had both his hands blown off at the wrists by unskilful
artillery-practice in one of the early battles. A currycomb and brush
were fitted into his stumps, and he was engaged in grooming
artillery-horses with considerable skill. This man was called an
hostler; and, as the war drags on, the number of these handless hostlers
will increase. By degrees the clerks at the offices, the orderlies, the
railway and post-office officials, and the stage-drivers, will be
composed of maimed and mutilated soldiers. The number of exempted
persons all over the South is still very large, and they can easily be
exchanged for worn veterans. Besides this fund to draw upon, a
calculation is made of the number of boys who arrive each year at the
fighting age. These are all "panting for the rifle," but have been
latterly wisely forbidden the ranks until they are fit to undergo the
hardships of a military life. By these means, it is the opinion of the
Confederates that they can keep their armies recruited up to their
present strength for several years; and, if the worst comes to the
worst, they can always fall back upon their negroes as a last resort;
but I do not think they contemplate such a necessity as likely to arise
for a considerable time.
With respect to the supply of arms, cannon, powder, and military
stores, the Confederates are under no alarm whatever. Augusta furnishes
more than sufficient gunpowder; Atlanta, copper caps, &c. The Tredegar
works at Richmond, and other foundries, cast more cannon than is wanted;
and the Federal generals have always hitherto proved themselves the most
indefatigable purveyors of artillery to the Confederate Government, for
even in those actions which they claim as drawn battles or as victories,
such as Corinth, Murfreesborough, and Gettysburg, they have never failed
to make over cannon to the Southerners without exacting any in return.
My Northern friends on board the China spoke much and earnestly about
the determination of the North to crush out the Rebellion at any
sacrifice. But they did not show any disposition to _fight themselves_
in this cause, although many of them would have made most eligible
recruits; and if they had been Southerners, their female relations would
have made them enter the army whether their inclinations led them that
way or not.
I do not mention this difference of spirit by way of making any odious
comparisons between North and South in this respect, because I feel sure
that these Northern gentlemen would emulate the example of their enemy
if they could foresee any danger of a Southern Butler exercising his
infamous sway over Philadelphia, or of a Confederate Milroy ruling with
intolerable despotism in Boston, by withholding the necessaries of life
from helpless women with one hand, whilst tendering them with the other
a hated and absurd oath of allegiance to a detested Government.
But the mass of respectable Northerners, though they may be willing to
pay, do not very naturally feel themselves called upon to give their
blood in a war of aggression, ambition, and conquest; for this war is
essentially a war of conquest. If ever a nation did wage such a war, the
North is now engaged, with a determination worthy of a more hopeful
cause, in endeavouring to conquer the South; but the more I think of all
that I have seen in the Confederate States of the devotion of the whole
population, the more I feel inclined to say with General Polk--"How can
you subjugate such a people as this?" and even supposing that their
extermination were a feasible plan, as some Northerners have suggested,
I never can believe that in the nineteenth century the civilised world
will be condemned to witness the destruction of such a gallant race.
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
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|Transcriber's Note: |
| |
|The following changes have been made in the text. |
| |
|Page 103, "cut of" changed to "cut off". |
| (if he was not cut off by the enemy) |
| |
|Page 124, "Tennesse" changed to "Tennessee". |
| (as performed by General Polk in Tennessee) |
| |
|Page 180, "took me a drive" changed to "took me for a drive". |
| (This old gentleman took me for a drive) |
| |
|Page 227, "diffculty" changed to "difficulty". |
| (We experienced considerable difficulty in carrying) |
| |
|Unexpected use of punctuation and hyphens have been standardised.|
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